It was a beautiful sunny day to off we went to the little town of La Conner for lunch. According to the brochure
: There is nowhere else on Earth quite like La Conner. Nestled in evergreen forests of cedar and fir with the Swinomish Channel lapping at its shore, this Victorian era waterfront village invites you to remember the slower pace of a gentler time.And they are right! It is a quaint town along the river with lots of shops and restaurants.
The history of La Conner is that shortly after the American Civil War, Alex R. Underwood built a small log cabin on Sullivan's Slough. He and another settler, Michael Sullivan, began the enormous task of diking the Skagit flats to reclaim the land from daily high tides and annual flooding. Before diking, the Skagit flats consisted of a maze of shallow sloughs and unusable marshlands.
Alonzo Low arrived soon after Underwood and in 1867,. founded a treading post on the west side of the channel. The going was rough, and Low sold it 14 months later. Thomas Hayes from Snohomish took it over and established a post office as well. In 1869, he sold it to a well-to-do and educated newcomer by the name of John S. Conner.
Conner took over the post office and renamed it in honor of his wife, who had traveled with him and a wagon full of children across unsettled territory. The former Louisa Ann Sigfried, at the age 27, was the only non-Indian woman when she arrived. Conner took the first two initials and her married name to for the town name of La Conner
The town sits along the Swinomish Channel. There is something about La Conner's connection to the water that sets it apart from other towns its size. This village was built when waterways were the primary means of transportation. In those days, the biscuit whistle would blow at the cannery just around closing time. The womenfolk knew to put biscuits in the oven as the men made their way through town.
Walk around town and you may see the town's official mascots - a family of wild turkeys. The fowl appeared in the spring of 2004 and soon had a brood of eight chicks and have been around the town ever since. We did not see them the day that we were there, maybe it was too hot and they were keeping cool in the shade!
From the photo's you can see the Rainbow Bridge. It provides a beautiful view of La Conner. A few years back the arching bridge was scheduled to be repainted the standard Department of Transportation green. To prepare for the work, painters coated the bridge with red primer. Townspeople loved the color so much, the contacted Olympia. The folks in the state capitol shook their heads and allowed the Rainbow Bridge to remain "unpainted"
John and I had a wonderful lunch at Seeds out on their patio under a beautiful old tree. Then we wandered through the town. Unfortunately it was one of the hottest days that we had had here in the Northwest and it was no fun window shopping... the places here do not have air conditioning. We did not stay long, it was just too darn hot!!!
It has cooled down around here and we have been relaxing with our NWA and other friends that are Yesterday we did drive up to the town of Bellingham to the local farmers market, another cute little town. We had lunch and went to the market. The weather was cool and we had some fog which finally burned off around 3 pm, but it was a nice drive. We hope to go back again so that I can get some good photos. With the fog, it is impossible to take photos.Well that is about all that we are doing, today it is foggy again so we are getting caught up on things that need to be done.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Love, Candy and Johnny
